


Masks and Faces

by Sinnatious



Category: Magic Kaito
Genre: Gen, Identity Issues
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-05
Updated: 2018-08-05
Packaged: 2019-06-22 05:26:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 929
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15574752
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sinnatious/pseuds/Sinnatious
Summary: Hakuba is worried for KID - or more accurately, worried about losing Kuroba underneath.





	Masks and Faces

**Author's Note:**

> This was an old giftfic prompt that I'm putting onto Ao3 because I just love Kaitou KID way too much. Very short one shot, just dipping my toe in.

 

 

Hakuba burst onto the roof, blond hair still frizzed from the burst of static electricity Kaitou Kid had used to disrupt the security system. One leg of his pants was missing half of its fabric – torn off to escape the glue trap on the stairs – and his right side was spattered with bright pink paint from another barely-dodged trap, but he’d made it. The sky was still clear. For the first time a dozen heists, he’d made it before Kaitou KID could leave.  
  
“KID!” he called out.  
  
That familiar figure, clad in white tuxedo and cape and top hat, emerged from the shadows, a wraith in the pale light of a full moon. The power was still off for the blocks around them – a weird pocket of darkness in Ryougoku.  
  
“Tantei-san,” that pleasant voice greeted him, so similar to one he knew but still so alien, far too smooth, far too controlled.  
  
It infuriated him. He wanted to seize the thief by his shirt and shake him until the mask finally dropped.  
  
But even Hakuba had to admit that he wouldn’t be fast enough – Kaitou KID always stood just out of reach, a ghost you couldn’t ever quite touch. You were lucky if a finger brushed some fabric, proof that he was actually there and not merely an illusion.  
  
“What happened to Kuroba Kaito?” Hakuba demanded, without preamble. He’d finally, at last, caught the thief long enough to ask that. He couldn’t waste any words.  
  
Kaitou KID merely tilted his head – his monocle caught the moonlight, flashing a blinding silver. “I don’t know what you mean, tantei-san.”  
  
Fury and fear and anxiety and frustration roiled in him, threatening to spill out and destroy all in its path. “Don’t feed me that line now, after  _six months_!” he shouted.  
  
The words echoed across the roof, stark and confronting. Hissing through his teeth, Hakuba reined himself in and continued in a more controlled tone, “You disappeared without a word. Do you have any idea how worried Aoko – how worried  _everyone_  has been? And then you have the gall to keep doing  _this_?”  
  
“I’m sorry about whatever is going on with your friend, tantei-san,” was Kaitou KID’s mild response, as he sauntered towards the edge of the roof. “But I can’t do anything about that. I’m sure, wherever he is, that he’s fine and must have a good reason for making you all worry.”  
  
It was the closest he’d received to an acknowledgement over the past six months. Normally KID was in and out so fast, each heist far too chaotic for Hakuba to even be heard over the ruckus, much less get any sort of answer. No doubt an intentional effort to avoid him. Edogawa was still afforded banter, after all, but then, the child had never met Kuroba.  
  
“ _Is_ he fine?” Hakuba demanded. “Then tell me this, KID: When was the last time you were Kuroba Kaito?”  
  
The slightest hitch in KID’s step was the only hint that he  _might_  have caught him off guard. “Really, tantei-san, you must stop accusing me of being your friend. It’s getting unoriginal, people might start thinking you’re a bad detective!”  
  
Hakuba, as always, ignored his protest. “The best magicians never drop the act. They carry their stage personas everywhere to hide their secrets. The feeble old man who’s as strong as an ox. A pair of twins sharing the same identity.” Hakuba watched him like a hawk, waiting for the barest slip in that poker face.  
  
KID, naturally, did not oblige. “Your point, tantei-san?”  
  
“It’s one thing for a celebrity or a stage magician. But the psychological toll is enormous. It happens with method actors all the time, who can’t let go of a role. And those are people who aren’t being  _shot at_ or  _breaking the law_. So forgive me for being more than a little  _worried_ , Kuroba, and just tell me –  _when was the last time you dropped the act_?”  
  
KID just smiled. It was all teeth and sharp edges and strangely haunting. “What do you want me to say, tantei-san? Six months?” He laughed, the sound as carefree as always. As fake as always. “I’d say it’s been at least eight years.”  
  
Hakuba froze in place, mind whirring with the hundreds of possible implications of that statement. Eight years? But that went all the way back to when…  
  
Nakamori chose that moment to burst onto the roof with half of the bedraggled taskforce, shouting obscenities as they rushed to dogpile the thief. Kaitou KID simply spun away and leapt into the sky, glider unfolding under his cape. “My apologies, Inspector, I can’t play tonight! Next time, perhaps!”  
  
No personal farewell for Hakuba, that time. No taunting ‘tantei-san’, or last-second prank.  
  
Kaitou KID  _was_  avoiding him.  
  
“I’m not giving up, KID!” he shouted into the sky. “You can’t hide behind that mask forever!”  
  
The Taskforce were giving him odd looks, but the sight of the usually unruffled Hakuba Sagaru shouting angrily after KID was hardly a new one. Nakamori patted him on the shoulder. “That’s the spirit! Downstairs, men! Squad cars, take chase! He’d heading east!”  
  
The roof emptied as quickly as it filled. Hakuba didn’t follow.  
  
It wasn’t even about catching the thief anymore. If Kuroba thought he would give up after a statement like that, he was tragically mistaken. No matter how hard he avoided him, Hakuba would be at every heist, calling his name, reminding him of the life he’d left behind.  
  
Reminding him that Kaitou KID was supposed to be the mask, not the other way around.

 

 

 


End file.
